I'm not confrontational to the Chinese in China, just the shitty ones, be they Chinese or fellow Laowai. You might as well be confrontational if needed, because they would happily try to humiliate you mercilessly in a similar situation.

Also, remember that not all jobs are worth keeping at all costs. Decent teachers can easily tell people to get f**ked as they can walk out and at least get a shitty TC job to keep themselves ticking over in five minutes flat. Shitty teachers (a.k.a otherwise unemployable potential paedos on the run back home) will probably tend to kiss the ass of their employer because they have everything to lose.

I don't even mind being thought of a potential troublemaker in this respect. I have learned my lessons about being too nice the hard way in the past. I even specifically let potential employers know that I took a previous employer to the authorities and got them in a fair bit of shit, for example. I pay attention to their reactions. After all, it is not the shitty companies that need to fear me, when I tell them this.

In some cases, it is not the case that you don't deserve to work for somebody; sometimes they don't deserve to employ you!